Rome (Italy). On 14 November 2021, the 5th World Day of the Poor is celebrated, an appointment that Pope Francis wanted to offer at the end of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy of 2016, “so that throughout the world Christian communities may become more and more a concrete sign of the charity of Christ for the least and most needy”.
In the Message for the Day entitled, The poor you will always have with you (Mk 14:7) – the Holy Father expresses the invitation “To never lose sight of the opportunity that is offered to do good,” to recognize the suffering of the poor, not as the fruit of fate, but as a concrete sign of God’s presence among the people. “The face of God that He reveals is in fact, that of a Father for the poor and close to the poor”.
As called to share the beatitude of the Lord and of His Kingdom, the poor “of every condition and every latitude evangelize us, because they allow us to rediscover the most genuine features of the Father’s face in an ever new way”.
To celebrate the 5th World Day of the Poor, this year Pope Francis makes a significant gesture: on 12 November he is a pilgrim to Assisi, the homeland of the poor man from whom he takes the name for his Pontificate, “And so, the name came, in my heart, Francis of Assisi. The man of poverty, the man of peace … Ah, how I would like a poor Church and for the poor!”.
In the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels, where the Porziuncola is enclosed, the small church ‘repaired’ by St. Francis, a treasure chest of Franciscan spirituality, he met 500 poor people from Umbria and different parts of Europe and listened to their stories of suffering and hope, thanking them for the courage and sincerity in sharing their testimony.
“It is time for the poor to have their say, because their requests have gone unheeded for too long. … It is time to break the circle of indifference to return to discover the beauty of encounter and dialogue. It is time to meet each other”.
On Sunday 14 November, the Pope will preside over the Eucharistic celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica, with the participation of 2,000 poor people followed by various voluntary associations in the Rome area. Some of them will proclaim the readings and prayers of the faithful. At the end of the Celebration, hot meals will be distributed to all participants.
There are various concrete initiatives to support the poor promoted by Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, from food supplies and personal care products, especially for early childhood, offered to 40 family-homes in the diocese of Rome, to the distribution of 5,000 kits of basic necessities for the health and care of people to about 60 parishes in Rome, which will then be distributed to the most needy families, to support about 500 families with economic difficulties for the payment of gas and electricity costs.
Pope Francis, at the end of the Message, hopes for an ever greater opening of the local Churches to the poor, not “as a category that requires a particular charitable service”, but as an integral part of the communities:
“I hope that the World Day of the Poor, now in its fifth celebration, can take root more and more in our local Churches and open up to an evangelization movement that meets the poor in the first instance where they are. …The poor are among us. How evangelical it would be if we could say with all truth: we too are poor, because only in this way would we be able to truly recognize them and make them become part of our life and an instrument of salvation”.
The Educating Communities of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians and of the Salesian realities all over the world celebrate the World Day with activities of various kinds to get close to the concrete needs linked to the poverty of the territory and of the populations affected by natural disasters or conflicts, with creative initiatives and educational activities to raise awareness for children, teenagers, and young people and by opening the doors of the communities to share a meal in fraternity with those who have less.
“We are called to reach out to the poor, to meet them, look them in the eye, hug them, make them feel the warmth of love that breaks the circle of loneliness. Their hand stretched out to us is also an invitation to come out of our certainties and comforts, and to recognize the value that poverty in itself constitutes”.
(Pope Francis)
